Making First Cuts #56 - Empangeni S. Africa

[HomeMadeCnc]

I'll take the cold over the heat any day! I melt at any temp over 30, must be that Canadian gene. Keep up the good work!

Tim

[Lex]

I must admit it would be nice to play in the snow right now! Just for a hour or so.
Thanks Gerald. I had my wire connections the wrong way around on the start-stop button. My diagram showed it right. I am going to blame it on the bi-focals.

[Lex]

I finalised my Kitchen table project over the weekend.
Everything is working perfect so far!
It took me 42 hours to do the wiring, not counting the breaks in between.

[Gerald D]

Baie mooi Lex!

[Alan_c]

Hey, that looks familiar, good going, now lets see it move some iron...
(how does your back and fingers feel after those 42 hrs?)

[LIBBIT]

well done brother.....

[javeria]

Johan - thats nice wiring - now where have I seen that before

Alan - I am presently re-wiring my servo machine - and hell - the back seems like broken -

I feel like 50 at 30.

RGDS
IRfan

[kaartman]

Nice Johan
That is great going, enjoy play time with the setup

[Kobus_Joubert]

Amper daar...nearly there...

[LIBBIT]

Hi Johan,

Is your schematic still the same?

RGDS

John

[Lex]

Thanks all.
Alan - fingers feels ok because I wired it bit for bit over a long period. I learned a lot on crimping and wiring. I visited my electrical supplier often to get the right stuff, but that was only due to my inexperience.
Irfan - It looked familiar to you an Alan because I borrowed a lot of ideas from the two of you to do my first panel wiring ever!
Gerald - Thanks for the thread change. If you could remove the extra 'g' in Empangeni it will be perfect.
John - The only change on my diagram was the removal of the wires on the BOB 24V connections. I am using 220v coils in my relays.

[Lex]

Workshop1.jpg

This is what I have been up to for the last couple of months.
The new workshop for the Big Blue Machine is built onto the existing double garage.

Workshop2.jpg

The inside of the shop were I am busy drilling the table steel after I have cut & trimmed it to size.

I made a mistake when I cut the two main beams in half last year. It is second nature to grab the 45 deg square .. resulting the beams to be 110MM to short.
I have a idea to fix it. A little bit more about that later on.

[Gerald D]

It is still so clean!

That is probably the first pic on this forum that nicely shows our full-sized sheets of MDF. As they are stacked there, they are 6' tall and 9' long.

[hennie]

Goed gedaan oom!

Until now I have not cut to the full length 2750 mm x 1830 mostly 2400x 650 mm.What I did notice on the cuboard components is that I hardly use the last 100 mm on the x-axis (as per my cutting list program)

[anton]

Hi Lex,
What did you couple to the driver outputs for the motors? Light bulbs??

Anton

[Gerald D]

He coupled real motors to them, with spirals stuck on the shaft ends.

[Lex]

The colour on the walls should have been a few shades lighter but he wife tells me it will blend in nicely with the saw dust.

Hennie, I am glad to hear that one doesn't utilize the full table surface but I think I will still correct the length of the beams.. One never knows.

Anton. Those green lights are part of the Geckos. If see the green you get that warm feeling. If they turn red you start mumbling and talking to yourself. It useally starts with No.no...No!!..@&*.

[hennie]

I should have made it 4 meters when I had the chance.

[Kobus_Joubert]

Nice going Johan... I like those ventilation holes ...just right for REAL Geckos to climb in and out of the house

[Doug_Ford]

Beautiful work Johan. You are a real craftsman.

Those huge sheets of mdf make my back hurt just looking at them.

[domino11]

Johan,
I really like your garage. How are the walls constructed? Is it stucco over wood sheathing or cement block underneath? And I think it looks like slate tiles on the roof? Wonderfully done.

[hennie]

Johan,contac your local tcity or board suppler ask them if the have some damaged 600 formica tops most of the time it is just a scratch that makes it a reject and the price is halved.make yourself some bokkies to support it then you can do your rail cutting and grinding once you are finished use it for a working surface in your garage

[Gerald D]

I guess the boards are resting on the left over blocks used in the walls

Stucco is nearly unheard of here. We call it plaster - one part portland cement to about 5 parts sand (a bit of lime and a tablespoon plasticiser is optional).

Plaster over wood is extremely rare over here, but it is creeping in.

[Lex]

Kobus, I made a temporary cover out of scrap wood to cover the hole. I will be using the opening for the dust extraction piping. I hate those Geckos!

Doug, thanks a lot. The ruff construction work was done by a Zulu craftsman that I have trained myself over the years. I useally do the finishing myself. I save the money but lately the body struggles to keep up. I had a surprise at the weight of those 16mm mdf. I will have to think of using a manipulator to load the machine.

Heath, We used hollow cement blocks, approx. 6"x12"x18" wide. The plaster on the inside is mixed to a slush and spread about 5mm-10mm thick and then water brushed down. Outside matches the exist house which is a 10-15mm thick smooth plaster, texture with a hard broom. The roof tiles are made of cement. The quality is not so good as it used to be. One loose about 5% for breakage when working on the roof. What kind of roof covering do they use in Canada?

[Lex]

Thanks Hennie. I will but with my luck the price will still be over the top!

[Gerald D]

Johan, those boards look more red than yellow . . . . . .

Here in Cape Town we can usually find 2 different types of "Supawood" (mdf):

1. Reddish, made in SA, heavy with toxic glue, recycled wood (& scrap (metal)) content, softer center with almost glazed hard outer surfaces, tough on cutters and lungs.

2. Yellowish, imported, much less glue, less toxic, using only new pine, consistent density all the way through, much better on cutters and lungs.

No prizes for guessing which one we prefer when a choice is available.

[hennie]

Gerald and the best of it all is that the local mdf is also more expensive.

[Lex]

It is the reddish, smelly ones. I never realise the were two types. I must find out if the supplier stock the imported sheets. I have a feeling that it is going to be negative, if I recall their service and the way they treat their customers.

[Alan_c]

The lighter imported one is usually marketed under the name "Truepan".

[LIBBIT]

Hey Johan,

She looks good, well done.

Looks like i will be relocating to Auckland in the next few weeks.

Got my cabinet, back plate, mounted all the parts i had. Busy getting the push buttons and the likes. Got an old Pentium III from work and gonna load it up with Ubuntu and EMC in the next few days. Next big expence is the Gecko's.

Go for it boet......